>> that is it for "the five." thank you for watching. see you manana. captioned by closed captioning services, inc >> shannon: is today obamacare's alamo? this is "special report." ♪ ♪ >> shannon: good eveningment i'm shannon bream in for bret baier. can obamacare survive without the individual mandate? that's the question in the oral arguments today. some thought the law looked dead after tuesday's questioning but it's premature to put the final nail in the coffin. they were back in full force awaiting a double-header at the supreme court. as the fight over the president's healthcare law continues.

>> shannon: they are looking into the mandate that would require every american to pay penalty if they don't buy health insurance. they have great concern over what challengers proposed, throwing out the entire affordable care act. >> why should we say that the state between wrecking operation, which is what you are requesting, or a salvage job? the more conservative approach would be salvage rather than throwing out everything. >> shannon: justice struggled to see if there was any other solution. >> most of the seg rability cases involve one little aspect. the question is the rest. when have we struck down the main purpose of the act and left the rest in effect? >> shannon: this afternoon in a second session, the justices heard from 26 states. arguing that they cannot afford to add millions to the medicaid roles as the new law will soon require. the states say statutory

language empower the federal government to withhold all the medicare funding if they refuse to take on the new enrollees. a frame work they say leaves the state no real choice at all. >> today, we discuss medicaid coercion issue and whether or not threatening to take away every single penny of our hard earned tax dollars, our medicaid funding is coercion. we don't know what is. >> shannon: however, the federal government will subsidize all of the additional cost in the beginning to trillions of additional dollars to the state. justice kagan is unpersuaded how that is coercion. >> the federal government says t says --

>> shannon: with the arguments now wrapped, both sides spinning what they heard as a victory. we must await an opinion due by the end of the court's term in late june. critics of the affordable act smelled blood in the water after the solicitor general appeared to stumble under questioning tuesday. despite a vote of confidence that the job he is doing, white house is showing signs it's preparing a positive spin regardless of the outcome. ed henry explains. >> while president obama boasts about not paying attention to cable chatter, the staff could not avoid the storm of criticism to the solicitor general for what many called a weak performance to help put the signature domestic achievement on the brink. >> this delivered this for the supreme court. that's a fact. >> he is under fire after stammering and coughing his way through oral arguments tuesday. >> healthcare in this country -- [ coughing ] excuse me.

>> there was a questionable answer to common analogy by justice scalia. >> in the market, everybody has to buy food. >> so you define the market as food. therefore everybody is in the market and therefore you can make people buy broccoli. >> that is quite different. that is quite different. the food market, while it shares that trait, that everybody is in it, it's not a market in which your participation is often unpredictable. and often involuntary. >> white house allies caution pundits may be overreading gloom and doom. >> some justices actually ask questions that are contrary to where they may be going. >> one of the plaintiffs that argued against him before the high court said the white house should prepare for disaster. >> the point of the individual mandate is drive mandates down. if you throw that down and leave the rest in, the cost goes through the roof. >> white house aides says president is so certain of

victory he does not have a plan "b." >> in a shift, the obama campaign is now even embracing the critics framing of the law as obamacare. >> if you want to call it obamacare, that's okay. i do care. that's why we passed it. >> administration officials say they're not trying to defend solicitor general, they think he did a good job. responding to the reporters' questions. and he tried to save things to make an emotional appeal to justices saying people with cancer and heart disease are counting on the court. >> shannon: ed henry live at the white house. thank you, ed. we are joined by member of the judiciary committee who clerked for justice alito. you saw what i saw if you watched the arguments. your impression of the solicitor general? >> the solicitor general did a good job, she a good lawyer. a hard-working lawyer. he did the best job he could in this case. he has a hard case to make.

congress overreached. he is likely to lose. >> shannon: the core of the case, day two. everybody was watching justice kennedy. swing vote. likely for a swing decision. what did you make of what he said? questions suggested he had problems with the mandate. >> it did. he repeatedly indicated through the questions, body language, intonation and answers to answers provided by the arguing council he has problemarguedasing -- arguing c. i wouldn't be surprised if he didn't think it was unconstitutional. >> what did you make at the end of the argument that said he had concerns that the example they talked about the young person who is healthy right now, they are not in the market. they choose not to buy the health insurance. if they don't and something

happens they drive up the cost of those who have chosen to be get insurance. he talked about the relationship of the person to the person with insurance. it seemed he had a concern there. >> he was making an argument and trying to explore the limits of the government argument as compared to those presented by the states. that is an argument. in totality, the comment and body language demonstrates he sees this as a government overreach. it's beyond congress' power to tell individuals they have to buy health insurance. >> there is speculation that the slimmish of margin, that the cheap justice is persuadable. he had tough questions for both sides. do you have doubts about where he will vote on this? >> look, he did ask tough questions for both sides. there is no question about that. if you look at yesterday's argument regarding the mandate, he used the first person singular repeatedly to express concerns that he has about the mandate.

when he explained the opposite point of view he referred to the government position. there is a big difference how he presented the question. there is little doubt in my mind as far as my ability to predict what the supreme court might do. if i predict the way the chief justice is going, i say he is likely to conclude the mandate is unconstitutional. he would be right. >> shannon: if they knock it down where do they go from there? do we rewrite the law. or send it to congress as a shell? what do we do with it? >> shannon: they strongly suggested there would be a

huge problem associated with trying to do surgery on the legislation in the event that the individual mandate found unconstitutional. as justice scalia put it, it would be like taking the heart of the bill and say the rest can survive. he suggested several times if you take a heart out of the bill, if there is a heart in the bill. he suggested this one is. the bill has to go down to leave it to congress to decide if what if any provisions to reenact. >> shannon: do you think congress is up to the task? a number of them had skepticism that congress doesn't have bipartisan agreement on anything right now. >> it doesn't. but it doesn't change the fact congress is the body that is dually elected and constitutionable authorized to pass laws. if you have them doing surgery on a law, the concern it could be legislating. it's producing a new law each time it excises something else out and leaves something else in. it can't do that. that is why i think the court

should and likely will find that the individual mandate is not severable from the rest. >> shannon: what do you think of justice ginsberg comment it would be the more conservative approach, that was her word to use not a wrecking ball but a salvage operation instead. a number said that is the presumption of the court. if you strike it down, you keep the rest of the law. >> it's a presumption in many cases. in other cases it's what prevailed. i respectfully and disagree that should be the rule in this case. you have the center piece, heart of the legislation. if you take it out, everything else collapses around it. matter of simple economics, it's difficult to imagine how the affordable care act can function as cohesive poll. i don't think it can. for that reason the court should and could and find that it's not severable.

>> shannon: thank you for coming in. good to see you. that brings to us the text to vote question. how will the supreme court rule on bam carrie? text sr1 to 36288 for uphold all of it. text sr2 for reject all of it. 3628text sr3 if you think the mandate will be rejected. the results are later. after the break, government's ability to regulate oil and coal on trial. [ donovan ] i hit a wall.

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>> shannon: federal authorities today charged the jetblue airway captain who sprinted through the cabin of a flight screaming about a bomb, interfering with a flight crew. passengers had to restrain him tuesday after the erratic behavior led the copilot to lock him out of the flight

captain. the las vegas bound flight forced to lan in amarillo, texas. the f.b.i. is investigating. stocks were down. dow lost 71-1/2. s&p 500 gave back 7. nasdaq closed 15 behind. the price of gasoline added a penny. the national ample is $3.91. the price of oil declineded. crude fell more than $2 to close at over $105 a barrel. house republicans targeting the obama administration on a pair of energy issues, one involving coal, the other oil. won the right to subpoena. to find out what really happened, we look there at a fair and balanced look. >> republicans charge administration officials added to the report by a panel of engineering experts to make it appear they were recommending the moratorium on drilling that the administration imposed to the gulf of mexico in 2010. but lawmakers say the panel did not favor a moratorium, that it did the opposite. it would be economically damaging to the region.

>> a report that was changed was edited, to falsely reflect that is a panel recommended the moratorium when it did not. >> if the president wants to be hon west the american people, he should direct his employees to fully disclose exactly how the decision to impose the devastating moratorium was made and who made it. >> those who represent the gulf agree with an argument on the mothertorial killed -- moratorium killed 160,000 jobs. >> they told the family there is no vacation, college would have to wait, the wedding would have to be scaled back. maybe, they simply didn't like who mommy and daddy worked for. >> democrats condemned the effort as nothing more than politics. >> using subpoenas to score political points in a policy dispute is inappropriate. subpoenas are a tool, a last resort, not a weapon of political retort. >> on a second issue,

republicans want to investigate if the political appointees squelched a report to show coal mining would destroy jobs. >> the obama administration regulation would cost over 7,000 mining jobs and cause economic harm in 22 states. >> critics alag after it showed job losses, political employees pressed him to change the numbers. one republican said it would have a devastating impact, pushing up energy prices and destroying jobs. >> the rewrite of the rule is part of the obama administration multiprong war on the coal industry. >> who is hurt most by this? the poor. it's limited income. >> mining, good or bad, i think it's bad but if you want to talk about, that let's talk about that. >> the president started in office pushing cap and trade under which he said energy prices would skyrocket. now critics charge he is pushing the same policy through different means. >> shannon: jim angle, thank

you, jim. still ahead, you might want to reconsider checking your bags the next time you fly. that is in the grapevine. first, a closer look at the obama campaign with one of his top staffers. this is an rc robotic cw. my high school science teacher made me what i am today. our science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dlars into american education.

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>> shannon: while romney almost's republican challengers try to stay in bout and claim it's not over until it's over, vice president biden is starting to work from the other side of the ring. chief washington correspondent james rosen tracks the punches and counter punchs. >> joe biden. >> campaigning as an engineering firm in iowa, vice president biden unleashed a scorching attack on mitt romney, casting the g.o.p. front-runner as an enemy of american manufacturing. >> as governor of massachusetts, he repeatedly slashed funding for workforce training in manufacturing,

specifically. more tax cut goes to companies that create jobs over here. the romney tax cut goes to companies that create jobs overseas. >> focused on romney's tenure at bain capital, reviving a line of attack used for a time by romney's g.o.p. rivals an the vice president also made use of mockery. >> governor romney's called the president of the united states out of touch, out of touch. romney? i mean -- [ applause ] the romney campaign shot back with a statement arguing under mr. biden's law, 800,000 fewer americans have jobs. earlier romney courted wisconsin voters by phone with pledges to reinvigorate the u.s. economy. >> i don't think what you see is america's destiny. this is more of a detour. i will work very hard to make america the best place once again for entrepreneurs and innovators and small

businesses. >> touring a lumber company in wisconsin, rick santorum linked the issues of jobs and healthcare. >> company that is anywhere near 15 employees, reduce the size of the company employment so they will be under 50 employees so they won't have to comply with obamacare. >> newt gingrich purged one-third of his staff and forced out his campaign manager. the aides that remain now speak of the cash-strapped campaign, pursuing a big choice convention strategy. >> what is going to happen? you have a bunch of people to abstain to give newt gingrich a chance to win? it doesn't work that way. >> mitt romney was set to meet with george h.w. bush in houston, texas, tomorrow, for what looks to be an official endorsement. the former president unofficially endorsed romney in december. in washington, james rosenbe, fox news. >> shannon: let's now bring in ben, the national press secretary for the obama campaign live with us from chicago. good evening, ben. >> thanks for having me, shannon. >> shannon: all right. i want to start by talking about the vice president's speech today.

he talked about a number of things, went after mitt romney. it is sounding like presuming that the white house believes romney will be the g.o.p. nominee. he talked about the fact that governor romney practices benefited the most wealthy and powerful among us, those are the vice president's words. a lot of folks out there say this is going to be a campaign that focuses on class warfare. how do you respond? >> not at all, shannon. the fact is as governor of massachusetts, massachusetts ranked 47th out of 50th in job creation under governor romney. he vetoed legislation that would have prevented outsourcing. as specialist he promoted outsourcing. business administration that believes in insourcing and bringing jobs back to the united states, instead of outsourcing them out of the united states. the manufacturing sector in the country is resurgent. after years of decline we created more than 400,000 manufacturing jobs since the president came in office. that didn't happen by mistake. it was the result of this administration's policies. >> shannon: well, in response to the vice

president's comments romney fired back saying under this presidency, obama presidency, there are 800,000 fewer americans who have jobs. how do you respond? >> that is intellectually dishonest. we were losing 750,000 jobs a month when the president came in office in the midst of a financial crisis. he turned that around. we now created nearly $4 million private -- 4 million private sector jobs, more than 400,000 of those in the manufacturing sector. romney had been president he would have let detroit go bankrupt. we would have seen a million jobs and the auto industry go away. >> shannon: how will you use the vice president on the campaign trail? what does he bring to the campaign that is different than the president? >> vice president is giving series of framing speeches on issues to define the election. first on the president's decision to extend rescue loans to the auto industry, when the pundits said no and other politicians ran for cover. the second was on keeping the compact with america's seniors and ensuring that medicare and social security preserved for

future generations. nobody speaks with more creditability on these issues than joe biden who watched his father in scranton struck to make ends meet and had to move the family to delaware to find more work. we're focused on restoring economic security for the middle class. the republicans are focused on returning to the same policies that got us in the economic crisis in the first place. >> shannon: i wage to talk to you about thing that is grabbing a lot of headlines, the president's signature legislative achievement, affordable care act under fire at the supreme court this week. i want to play something from american crossroads that put the president debating himself at the supreme court when it comes to the law and key provision. listen in on this. >> mandate was the solution, we could try that to solve homelessness by mandating everybody buy a house. >> where every american bears responsible for owning health insurance. >> what are you going to do about it? are you going to fine them? garnish their wages? >> shannon: what do you make

of the accusation that the president flipped on some of the key components of the law? >> presidents have been trying to sol tv problem of healthcare reform for -- solve the problem of health reform for 70 years. the president said in the 2008 campaign we were going to get healthcare cost under control and provide affordable accessible healthcare to all americans. that's what this legislation achieved. on the individual provision, mitt romney agreed with him in massachusetts when he took on the problem. it's conservative scholars at heritage foundation who agreed it was necessary to get the healthcare cost under control and provide accessible, affordable healthcare. >> shannon: saying he never backed mandates proposed now and based on the study of economists by 20 years they retreated from that position. they want to be clear about that. >> i don't think we can dispute, though, this is in the massachusetts law that govern romney passed and said he wanted to be the national model. served as the national model for the affordable care act.

>> shannon: i want to ask you in closing about the supreme court. it sounds like today the vice president -- excuse me, the white house does not have a backup plan if they don't win. how will you work with them on the campaign trail? how do you sell it if the supreme court strikes it down? >> the white house made clear they are confident in the constitutionality of the affordable care act. what we are engaged in is making sure that the cost of repeal. governor romney and speaker gingrich and the senator santorum made clear they will repeal the affordable care act and allow insurance companies to go back to writing their own rules, allow insurance companies to discriminate against you if you have a preexisting condition. or if you are a female. women may $1 billion more a year for healthcare. we make sure through consequences of repeal. >> shannon: ben labolt, press secretary for the 2012 campaign. thank you. >> thank you for having me. >> shannon: grapevine is next. don't forget the text to vote question. how will supreme court rule on obamacare? text sr1 to 36288 for uphold

all of it. text sr2 for reject all of it. or text sr3 for just reject mandate. results later. [ artis brown ] america is facing some tough challenges right now. two of the most important are energy security aneconomic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project icanada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for oucountry's energy security and our economy.

>> shannon: now, fresh pickings from the political grapevine. case of mistaken identity forced an elderly cup to move in hotel after the stanford, home address was tweeted belonging to george zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer that killed martin.

they retweeted the address to the 250,000 followers. the couple's son named william george zimmerman told them that his 70-year-old parents are harassed, hassled by the media and now fear for their safety. in solidarity with trayvon martin, bobby rush wear hoodie this morning and some said he was out of order to wear a hat or in this case a hood and that breaks house rules. >> member wilson, member wilson -- >> these words -- >> member will -- >> these words -- >> shown your -- >> the member will -- [ overtalk ] >> out of order. >> shannon: that went on for a minute before the congressman was escorted out. something to make you carry on your luggage the next time you fly.

valuables are being stolen from passenger's bags at an alarming rate. more than 200 thefts every day at jfk airport. sources say the baggage handlers, jetway workers and security folks are to blame. with a jfk security worker comparing the belly of the airplane to flea market. there is damaging testimony in this afternoon's hearing about former mf global ceo jon corzine. chief congressional correspondent mak mike emanuel shows whether there is misintent. >> it was the central focus on the hill today, several firms key financial officers and general counsel were asked to testify as they sought to look into autopsy of why the firm collapsed in october of october of last year. >> we learned ceo jon corzine likely wasn't the innocent bystander he claimed to be in front of this committee in december. >> among the questions why the firm failed to protect client

money, whether m.f. global kept information from regulators and who authorized october 28, $200 million transfer from a customer account to cover a $175 million overdraft in m.f. global account. assistant treasureer edith o'bryant wrote the transfer was j.c., jon corzine's direct instructions. today, she invokeed her fifth amendment right. >> i reflectfully declean to answer. >> former chief financial officer of m.f. global christine serwinsky who was out of town at the time of the transfer asked about it by the sub committee chairman randy. >> knowing what you know today would you approve the transaction, yes or no? >> no. >> in december, former ceo and formerer senator and governor jon corzine was grilled on multiple occasions whether he ordered using $1.6 billion in client funds with the firm's cash.

the initial response was phrased this way -- >> someone misinterpret it. we have to fix this. >> five days later, corzine fine tuned his language before the senate committee. >> as far as i'm concerned, he never gave instructions that anybody could misconstruct. >> the chairman of the committee said the investigation in the eighth largest bankruptcy in american history could be finished this summer. one of seven investigations and multiple lawsuits facing jon corzine. shannon? >> shannon: mike emanuel live on capitol hill. thank you, mike. >> obamacare makes the last stand. all-star give us their thoughts on the final day of the supreme court hearing next. i'm freaking out man, he's on my back

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job? and the more conservative approach would be salvage rather than throwing out everything. >> shannon: that is justice ruth bader ginsberg talking about the rest of the healthcare law if they throw out the been a date. our panel, fred barnes. mara liasson of national public radio. and syndicated columnist charles krauthammer. welcome to you all. day three, final day at the supreme court. what do you make of the conversation they had back and forth? several justices seem concerned about striking down the entire life if the mandate goes. >> it's clear, if the mandate is cut down, the rest of the bill will be struck down. you had four justices, say they, indicate strongly they favored striking down the whole thing if the mandate is struck down. and the fifth would be clarence thomas. so, that would be 5-4. if you do the math. basically, if the mandate goes and that looks more like,

maybe a little bit over 50/50 in favor of it being struck down, then the whole obamacare will go. with all the political devastation, that will mean to obama's presidency. >> shannon: justice ginsberg talked about more using a scalpel than sledgehammer. justice scalia, and listen to what he had to say. >> most of the severability case involves one aspect of the act. the question is whether the rest. when have we ever really struck down what was the main purpose of the act and left the rest in effect? >> shannon: several times today that justice saffir-simpson scale referred to this as the heart of the act and said if you take that out, the rest can't survive. >> obama administration might not have put that it way, but they put it close together and said you can't ask the insurance companies to do all of these things like get rid of the been a on preexisting conditions or make sure you are not charging one group of

people more than another, if you get rid of the mandate. the mandate would even by the obama administration admission get rid of a lot of it. >> shannon: it would. the government arguing the position. there were key portions that would fall if the mandate goes. the court took unusual step of putting in a third attorney, outside force to argue that the law could survive. she has water. she is doing okay. but charles, you think that they take -- assuming they take down the mandate, which they for the devil's advocate purposes they said it would happen. for purposes of this argument. do you think there is any way that the justices come together to keep the law intact? i think not. mandate is so central to the act, if you take it out what is left is distorted. without the mandate, you don't have a funding source for the entire healthcare system. that is the new way. reorganizes the financial mechanism of healthcare in

america, one-sixth of the economy. if you take it out, there is no way the insurers can provide what they have to provide under the other provisions of the law. if the mandate goes down, everything will go down. >> shannon: a couple of justices said repeatedly this court ruled in favor of upholding a law. when they decide to strike down portions the general frame of mind is stay with allowing the entire law to stand. you said four will go that way. >> five of them. >> shannon: we only heard from four. >> yeah. justice scalia said you want to us go through 270 pages of legislation to pick out what we think really have to go? maybe they can save tax on tanning salons, which is in there. i think they ought to agree, look, we will overturn the

whole thing we do the mandate and send it to congress. >> shannon: justice scalia said it might be cruel and unusual punishment to relitigate every piece of this. >> it's amazing that the supreme court would take something that congress passed and not let congress decide what parts should remain. if they only have one part unconstitutional. >> shannon: under the program and the law that stands, state take on millions of additional people on the roles. in the beginning, the federal government subsidizes it at 100% rate. but it does taper off. many are complaining the federal government shouldn't tell them how to spend the money. they would take away all the medicaid money and there was an argument today. >> the word for what the federal government is threatening to remove everything from the medicaid, including the medicaid

assistance that predates obamacare is extortion. that is coercion by the federal government. the essence of obamacare and the reason it's channeled constitutionally is it's such an overextension of the power of the central government, in every area. mandate against the individual, but here it's against the states. it's establishing itself as supreme court. if they order an individual to enter into a contract, whatsoever, no limit to what the federal government can do. the answer is no. if it can so threaten the states after it's been baiting and switching on them for half a century, medicaid, supposed to be a partnership, share all of this. it's now a huge element of every state government. the feds withdraw the money. states are terrible trouble. they have no choice. it is extortion. that is why i think they have played this strong case. although i'm not sure that conservative justices will want to go 3-0 on this.

they might throw a bone to the other side. give them a win. because really important issues are the mandate and whether the whole bill. if the whole bill collapses medicaid element is moot completely. >> shannon: right. it would be. fred, last word. >> think how hard it would be for a state to say no, we don't want the money. then they could get new money. expand the roles and government could establish you're not going to get any money. that is the hard part for the states. >> shannon: it's not a choice at all. all right. that's it on healthcare. up next. both sides of the 2012 race. [ male announcer ] the next generation of lexus cannot be contained. [ clang ] the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. see your lexus dealer.

gor romney, business practices and his policies clearly benefited the wealthy and most powerful among us, often at the expense of working and middle class families. they believe it's the best way. i'm not doubting their belief. but it just doesn't work that way. >> i don't think what you see is america's destiny. it's more of a detour. i will work hard to make america the best place for entrepreneurs and know vators and small businesses -- innovators and small bidss. >> shannon: time to talk 2012. back with the panel, fred, mara and charles. they decided romney is the nominee, it sounds like, and they are starting the general election. >> good old joe is the attack dog. what else is there for a vice president to do? biden is assigned the job attracting every cent spent to make sure it's well spent.

i'm sure he is still working on that late at night. on this, out of touch who cares not about america. the problem is that romney is not the one going up against obama. obama has his own out-of-touchness issue. it worked in a sense because he was a spectacular person that came out of nowhere. attracted everyone to his charisma but that is all over now. i know we look at him as a president who has a record. this edges out that side of being coy. i'm not sure it's a competition of who is the fuzzier and cuddler candidate that the other side will win. it's a tie on that and in the end it's on policies. >> shannon: charles, mention the policies but there is a

back and forth on who is out of touch. do you think it hurts or helps either side? >> i think a candidate for president personal attribute are important. if you vote for commander-in-chief, it's different. it's not bipartisan, it's not just you vote for your party. there is much worse than obama and his personal favorability ratings are solid. you want it over 50% if you are an incumbent that feels comfortable about the re-election. romney has work to do there. true that obama has aloof aspect. but it comes to people like you and some place you want to have a beer with, romney struggled. now the question is once he doesn't have to pay in i attention to rick santorum and he doesn't have to be engaged

in the firing squad that the republican race became and he can turn his attention to obama does it change? we made fun of rick santorum saying there is an etch-a-sketch. but there is a truth of that. every nominee gets shave and hair cut and they get to start afresh. >> shannon: you left out the name newt gingrich. >> i think he is irrelevant. i really do. >> shannon: he doesn't think so. he has cut his staff. he is staying until the convention because he feels like he has a voice there to pull off some upset at the convention. is it time for him to dial that back? >> i think the idea he will play a big role at the convention is probably delusional. i think he is irrelevant now, as mara said. and that's about it. look, i think santorum has to get three-quarter of the delegates left to get the nomination. it makes sense.

that's why the obama white house pays attention to romney. the question about romney is this -- will romney be a strong general election candidate that he emerges with the nomination. he will be seen differently then when he is the republican nominee. might not be until the convention at the rate we're going now be there is a chance he will be a better candidate that we've seen now. he will be much tougher. against obama. i think the personal traits are not going to matter, not matter that much. they're both aloof. hey, look, obama has been in office a long time now. that does set you apart from the rest of the country. romney has been a businessman and that may as well. i don't think the personal traits mean much. >> shannon: charles, anybody, is there an elegant way for anyone to bow out before the convention? will they do it? >> there are elegant ways but nobody is going to do it. [ laughter ] gingrich wants to be a force or at least an element.

maybe, i'm not sure what he is going to do in tampa, but he wants to show up. ron paul will show up. he has weakened since his early success, he has very few delegates. i don't think he will end up with a speech the way he might have ended up with had he continued to get, you know, 20, 25% of the vote. then there is santorum who i think he has one strategy, to deny romney majority. and hope for lightning. i don't think it will happen. it's really only a matter of weeks. everybody, tech visit president now is assuming it will be romney. it's kind of psychologically the race is over. >> shannon: once you are out of money it makes it tough to continue on, and we know several are struggling with that. panel, thank you very much. stave tuned, though. you heard about the key and president obama taking over the comments that he made to russian president. there is more to that. we'll bring it to you right after the break. what's the matter?

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time to reveal the infinity results. text to vote as a we asked you how would the supreme court vote on obama care. 3% said uphold all of it. 83% said reject all of it and 14% said reject just the mandate. you might have been swayed by the panel a little bit. we had more than 8,000 in this poll. we know an open mike can be a dangerous thing as president obama found out when was caught whispering to russia's president. there is more you probably haven't seen until now. >> mr. president, would you do me the honor and sing that song one more time? ♪ i'm so in love with you >> it's amazing. >> you guy